- English translation
I'd sooner face fire and flames than run into you on the road.
- Literal wording
Fire and burning, rather than you on the road.
- Meaning and lesson
A cutting expression of aversion toward someone whose company has become a steady source of grief. By choosing flames and burning over a chance meeting, the speaker declares that this person wounds more deeply than any physical calamity could.
Its force lies in exaggeration: fire, the usual emblem of ruin, is cast as the lesser evil. The line thereby measures how much a habitual wrongdoer is resented, making the mere prospect of meeting them on the way sound worse than catastrophe itself.
- When it is used
Use it to voice strong dislike of someone known for repeated mischief or harm, usually in pointed complaint or sharp banter. Because it openly ranks the person below a disaster, it is insulting when addressed to them and unsuitable for polite or formal settings.
- Register
- colloquial; openly disparaging
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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